Author: admin

JUSTINE IN FJORDLAND ON THE DAY WE PADDLED PAST MILFORD SOUND
BARRY VYING FOR SOME OF THE ATTENTION THAT THE ‘GIRLS’ PADDLING AROUND THE SOUTH ISLAND ARE GETTING!

We’re having a day off in Westport. We could probably have made good progress north today as there is a SW tail wind but the forecast is for 4 metre swell so we stayed put. In fact we have a sheltered launch at the harbour in Westport and the next place that we plan to land is, according to Paul Caffyn, one of the best sheltered landings on the West Coast so we’d probably have been fine, but the forecast for the next 2 days is good aswell with a lower swell, and we felt like a rest and some good eating while we are in a town!

SUNSET AT OKARITO
DINNER WITH JAN AND WHISKERS
Yesterday we had a following sea again and even after a bit of a lie-in, we arrived around 3.30pm. We walked a couple of kilometres into town for some food and a look around, and when we got back we camped on the beach by the kayaks. This afternoon we found out that a friendly local, Harriet, who the Sweedish kayaker Babs stayed with was looking for us to offer us a place to stay. After a few phonecalls and a chance meeting with a friend of hers, Brian, on the beach, we’re now in her lovely house getting showered, washing our clothes & using the internet. I’m ashamed to say that our clothes have only been washed twice in the last 55 days – they can practically walk into a room by themselves, so it’s great to have them clean again! We’re continuing to be amazed and grateful for all the help and support we’re getting from locals in NZ.
JUSTINE ROUNDING CAPE FOULWIND YESTERDAY
Once we leave here, we hope to paddle about 60km to the Little Wanganui River which is the sheltered landing Paul mentioned, and then we plan to wait for a good weather day and paddle as far as we can as there isn’t much more protection from the swell until we round Farewell Spit. Paul told us about a few places which offer some protection so we’ll try to reach one of those, and with luck round the spit the following day. We shall see!! Meanwhile we’re enjoying a sunny day off, we had a dip in the sea this morning, a nice pub meal at lunchtime and Harriet is planning a BBQ for this evening.
BARRY AT GREEN’S BEACH
This is now my longest ever kayak trip – today is day 51 and Barry and I are still talking to each other! In fact we worked out that in the last 55 days ( including travelling & preparing time) the most time we’ve spent apart is about an hour, and that was when I was sick and sleeping at Tim & Jacqui’s house, so we must be getting on OK! We did think about going to see different films at the cinema in Westport just to get a bit of space, but Harriet tells us there’s only 1 film showing here so there goes that idea!
BAZ & JUSTINE AT THE FOX GLACIER

Stopped in Westport after safe landing. 47km fast paddle with foul wind and big swell at the cape. Walked into town for fish and chips – icecream and beer tonight!

S41°44.23' E171°35.55'

[alex on behalf of jc]

Stopped at Seal Island after 51km in 6 hours! Wind and swell were with us. Very pretty limestone cliffs and a protected landing. Met some playful dolphins. Had a great morning with Paul and friends before setting out.

S42°02.09' E171°22.20'

[alex on behalf of jc]

Hello from Paul Caffyn’s house. I’m sitting at Paul’s computer looking out the window at about 1 metre surf ( ‘You are SO lucky”, Paul keeps telling us! “This is SUCH a good Summer – that’s about as good as it gets!”). We were hoping for a windy rough day today so we could have a day off chilling out with Paul, Deb and Jim ( 2 Tsunami Rangers who are staying with him), but the weather is really settled right now with low surf and almost no wind so we feel we should take advantage of it to make more progress up this surf coast.

We’ve had a lovely few days up the coast from Hunt’s Beach – a day’s paddling and then a day’s rest twice. At Okarito we were put up by Tristan and Matt, a lovely couple who were staying there while Matt did some work on Tristan’s dads house. It was fun to chat to them and great to sleep in a bed and have hot showers. Matt carried the boats up to his house on their quad bike and trailer which saved us a lot of work heaving them. We took their dog, Zeus for a walk on the beach and out to the pretty lagoon and had an afternoon nap. Leaving through the surf is always tense, Barry made it out fine at Okarito and got a few large waves in the face at our second spot, the start of Green’s beach. One of them knocked him over and he had to roll up. I went second both times as I wanted to film Barry and my kayak got turned sideways by the waves 3 times before I managed to make it out. I also got a few hefty waves in the face.

We wanted to say thanks to Glen and Marie at the Haast Beach Holiday Park who put us up for the night for free when we were in Okuru – it’s much appreciated. Also thanks to Rob and his mates who were staying there for a few days fishing – we met Rob in Moeraki at the start of our trip so it was fun to bang into him again ( thanks for the beer and port!!)

Well, time to start thinking about getting on the water. We hope to paddle about 50km to Seal island today – hopefully we’ll do it in about 7 hours if we manage to sustain yesterday’s pace, but ideally we’ll be on the water before noon so we won’t be landing in the dark!


Thanks to Deb Volturno for the photos.